Chapter 162: Canned Caviar

After Viscount Macbeth left, the upper and middle classes in Castle Black felt that the status of the MacDongbai family was declining rapidly, and even LordGrieg -> Grieg’s family was affected.
OldGrieg -> Grieg had originally been Macbeth’s enforcer, handling various despicable tasks for his master over the years, and he had offended many people along the way. Now that Macbeth had fallen, those with grudges took the opportunity to harm him, while those without grudges also looked down on OldGrieg -> Grieg’s character and mocked him.
Among all the informed elites in Castle Black, not a single person warned him!
What made OldGrieg -> Grieg even more frustrated was that even if he wanted to seek an explanation from the Melinna family, who were at the source of the problem, he had no valid reason—after all, they hadn’t done anything in his territory. He was just scaring himself, acting foolishly out of panic.
Donald certainly wouldn’t feel sorry for the losses and distress this incident caused LordGrieg -> Grieg. After dredging the lower section of the River Winter, he began researching how to develop the ice fish industry successfully.
He knew that ice fish preferred cold but clean waters, though the water couldn’t be too cold—water that had just melted into streams, with a temperature close to zero degrees but not reaching freezing point, was ideal.
Temperature wasn’t a problem, but water quality was more challenging. Such an environment was easy to find in the Cloud Mountain area, but once the water reached the River Winter and Moonlight Lake, the water quality would likely change, making it difficult for ice fish to survive.
So Donald first thought of a purification spell he had seen in books before.
The purification spell used arcane power to filter pollutants and impurities from water or air, then created an extremely tiny spatial channel to expel those waste materials to some external realm.
Although this spatial channel was one-way and very small, it involved spatial rules, making it a rather complex spell in ancient times. It was created by great archmages to handle experimental waste without contaminating the main material world.

Upon thinking of this magic array, Donald became highly interested, as it could not only be used to purify the environment but also serve as a waste processor. Although there were no naturally indegradable white pollutants like plastic in this world, there was still a lot of household waste that was difficult to handle. His original decree required all waste in the territory to be piled up together, with the useless parts buried deep, while the organic waste was fermented into fertilizer.

However, burying waste in this way would take decades to decompose naturally and could inevitably contaminate the underground water resources of the territory. Now, if he could develop this purification magic array, then there would be a way to deal with that household waste.

Yet Donald’s mastery of magic arrays was still at a beginner level, fortunately with the help of the Book of Truth. This time, instead of having the artifact analyze the array’s principles and replicate it, he chose to expend a drop of divine power to enter the House of Time. It took him over three months to successfully master the method of setting up this purification array. As for its principles, they involved spatial rules and were too profound; he would likely need to fully digest the knowledge contained in his divinity before he could understand them.

After successfully setting up a purification array, Donald went to Moonlight Lake in person to test it. The lake, now almost two-thirds full, had become the most popular attraction in the territory. Every day, large crowds gathered by the lake to admire its waters and wait for it to be completely full. Donald installed the purification array at the bottom of the lake and used stone-forming magic to secure it there. Once the array was activated, a visible stream of clear water appeared above it in the water, making the view there clearer than elsewhere. This stream also slowly spread into the surrounding water.

It was estimated that in a few days, the turbidity caused by debris and soil carried by the water flow would disappear and settle, while the harmful substances would be slowly and continuously absorbed by the purification array. Once enough had accumulated, it would open a passage to the outer realm to expel these harmful substances into the void.

The purification array only served to clean the water based on its original quality and could not significantly improve it. So Donald thought of Moon Essence and the Fountain of Life.

After experiments, Donald found that the diluted Moon Essence indeed could boost the activity and growth of ice fish. However, Moon Essence was a digestive agent, and even if all that had accumulated over time were poured into the lake, its amount would likely have little effect. So he simply exchanged for a Spring of Life and placed it on the island in the lake’s center, connecting it to the water.

With the purification array at the bottom of the Moonlight Lake combined with the Spring of Life on the island, after a few days, visible changes occurred in the lake water—its quality was almost comparable to that of mountain streams just melted from ice and snow. Now, all that was left to do was lure the ice fish there. As for whether it would work or not, Donald wasn’t entirely sure.

But clearly, he was lucky and his method was correct. Using Moon Essence as bait, he started from the source of the River of Everwinter and placed amounts of it in the river at regular intervals, successfully attracting many ice fish. However, after arriving at the Moonlight Lake, not many of these fish stayed; most returned to the upstream mountain streams.

Donald wasn’t in a hurry—there was plenty of time!

Putting the breeding of ice fish aside for now, in addition to ice fish, Donald also introduced a species similar to the fish from his past life but with better taste: the Green-Scaled Sturgeon. These fish were quite large, usually over three feet long, with slender bodies that were tender and delicious. They had large bones and few small bones, making them ideal for fish fillets. It was said that occasionally, some in these sturgeon populations evolved into first-tier magical beasts, with even more exquisite meat. Fishermen in the north could sell one such fish for hundreds of gold sols.

After deciding to introduce new fish species, the first one Donald thought of was the Green-Scaled Sturgeon.

He was obsessed with the flavors of boiled fish, fish with pickled vegetables, and raw fish fillets. However, he hadn’t made much progress with spices. Plants similar to pepper and fennel had already been found and planted for some time, but no substitutes for chili and garlic had been discovered yet.

He had tried several kinds of pungent and unusual alchemical ingredients before, but they were all plants that caused harm or side effects to the human body. Thus, Donald had never been able to create dishes with flavors similar to Sichuan cuisine.

Pickled vegetables, on the other hand, were easier to make. Perhaps because the basic environments of the two worlds were similar, after the kitchen experimented a few times, they managed to create pickled vegetables with a flavor similar to the traditional Sichuan-style pickled vegetables from his past life, rather than the Northeastern-style pickled vegetables. They used common vegetables from this world, which tasted similar to cabbage when eaten raw but looked like large, light-green spinach leaves.

In addition to the above, the fact that the Green-Scaled Sturgeon prefers to live and reproduce in slightly colder waters is also the main reason Donald chose this species. After all, when introducing fish species, their living habits must be considered. Even magic isn’t omnipotent—keeping tropical fish alive in the northern regions is something Donald knows he can’t do for now.

However, there’s another challenge to introducing the Green-Scaled Sturgeon: unlike small fish like ice fish, which feed on microorganisms and minerals in the bottom sediment, the Green-Scaled Sturgeon is herbivorous. Yet, Moonlight Lake currently has no aquatic plants at all. This problem was solved a few days after the water level in Moonlight Lake rose and the lower reaches of the River of Everwinter became navigable.

Due to the unique quality of the water in the River of Everwinter, which seemed to be filled with natural vitality, many fish from the River of Clouds were drawn to it and swam upstream into this new waterway, bringing many new species to Moonlight Lake and the River of Everwinter. Donald even flew to the River of Clouds, dug up soil from several areas covered with aquatic plants and other organisms, and brought it back to Moonlight Lake. Under the nourishment of its unique water quality and natural forces, a thin layer of ecosystem quickly formed, enriching the aquatic life.

Although fish and other organisms are still scarce, it is believed that in another six months or so, a complete food chain will be established, at which point residents of the territory can be ordered to conduct their first fishing expedition. For now, it is stipulated that people may only take water and must not disrupt the efforts to cultivate aquatic populations. The people also understand the lord’s plan for breeding, as fish, like livestock, need to grow big and fat before they can be slaughtered.

As for ice fish and related industries, Donald has already started them in the territory. Twenty years later, Kord saw the scene of ice fish fishing again and was so moved that tears welled up in his eyes. His relief and admiration for young master Donald are evident. With Kord’s experienced guidance, Donald ordered that fish be caught directly in the upper reaches of the River of Everwinter without disturbing their natural habitat. The caught male fish were sold alive in the towns surrounding the territory. These fresh live fish are very popular among nobles and wealthy merchants. Although they are a bit expensive—costing ten gold sols each—they are incomparable to ordinary food in taste.

The icefish roe in the bellies of the most valuable female fish is quite scarce. Although the icefish population Donald discovered was abundant, overfishing could not be allowed, and genetic diversity also had to be considered, so not many roe samples were harvested.

As rarity makes things valuable, after extracting the roe, Donald didn’t simply salt-dry it. Instead, he recalled the method of making caviar from his past life and experimented dozens of times in the kitchen until he found the perfect recipe. He produced the first batch of caviar and stored it in small, sterilized crystal jars.

A single jar of this caviar was only enough for a few bites for an adult, yet it cost as much as twenty gold sols per jar. Once it hit the market, it was in high demand and quickly sold out.

Due to its exorbitant price, caviar produced in Dalaran was only affordable for wealthy nobles and merchants. Once they tasted the caviar flavored with fine salt and various spices, everyone who tried it was captivated by its deliciousness.

However, this was not true canned food—it only extended shelf life by a few days beyond the original one week. It could only be sold in the royal capital and eastern coastal regions; exporting it abroad was practically impossible.

This led Donald to recall the invention of canned food from his past life, giving him another idea to make money.